Realism is at the heart of every single Rockstar title, but it was somewhat disappointing when Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 abandoned the weight and exercise systems of San Andreas. Grand Theft Auto 6, however, is bringing them back, as Dazed confirmed in an exclusive deep-dive.
Essentially, eating causes Lucia and Jason to gain weight. If you exercise, they’ll gain muscle mass, which means hitting the gym and whaling on a punching bag, as seen in one image of Lucia, or kayaking can have benefits. However, that’s not all. In a true nod to the survival genre, not sleeping or going on a “multi-day bender” will affect each character’s looks.
Rockstar North head of development Rob Nelson says, “We want to enable as much self-expression as possible without losing the essence of the characters.” It’s as much about the consequences of your actions as anything else, granting an altogether different dimension to the usual rampages through the city. However, these systems will also encourage players to actually role-play the characters and make their lives better or worse.
Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and so far, everything we’ve seen indicates that it’s an ambitious open-world venture unlike any game before it. And if that wasn’t enough to convince players, the development team has more than doubled since Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018, while bringing in street artists and race car drivers to handle different aspects.
